There's nothing I don't like about Nick Drake and I never play only one song, it has to be the whole LP, and almost always four or five times on the spin.

In my recent and on-going clear out, the first three CDs to be put back on the shelf as 'going nowhere' were 'Five Leaves Left', 'Bryter Layter' and 'Pink Moon'. I won't tell you what the first three to go were, as I'd probably get slaughtered!(Oh, OK then, the initials of the band's name were 'L' and 'Z').

What I don't get about Nick Drake is why almost everyone seems to see Pink Moon as his great masterpiece. I think it's easily his weakest album. Bryter Layter is so mucn better IMO.

Just shows how little I know.... I always took "Bryter Later" to be his acknowledged magnum opus (sorry OBS, but I too had a recent CD clear out and this one was an early casualty.... although I did offload at least four Led Zep albums in the same purge!)

"Five Leaves Left" is the other popular one I'm aware of - I've never even heard of "Pink Moon"!

I do wonder if he'd command quite the same reverence today had he lived. Moog mentioned Ralph McTell and that's a good comparison in my opinion.

A lot of folk/pysch has enjoyed a renaissance long after the 60s.....Rodriguez, Linda Perhacs, Bill Fay, Anne Briggs, Vashti Bunyan.....and all of them are still alive.

Mercifully in Nick's case, he didn't make a bad record (31 almost perfect songs) and, for whatever reasons, got out just as the industry might have foisted awful production on his records. A Nick Drake record in 1983, no thanks! He also had a very sympathetic record label (Island).

Death helps the mystique for many (unfortunately); but I think fantastic songs, wonderful production and beautiful LP sleeves matter more. I, for one, would revere these three LPs if he was still alive. I revere the Incredible String Band's LPs and they're both still with us.